


No more Zs! coffee

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bakery and Coffee Shop, No Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 18:53:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9780500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: This is a Z nation coffee shop AUWarren is a tired cop who a finds a small coffee place at 5:30 am and ends up becoming part of a strange dysfunctional family made of staff and regulars.





	

No more Z's!” coffee place was painted on the outside of the small coffee shop, and something that promised to get rid of all your sleepyness was exactly what Warren wanted. Someplace quiet and lonely where they would give her something strong enough to rease all the ZZZs that her sleep deprived brain was producing.

 

It had been a long night in the precinct, with lots of work, and she was still getting used to her new partner. Vasquez was not a bad officer, but it was difficult to accept someone else after the horrible way in which Garnett had left them, and how close they'd been. He was difficult to live up to, but that was not Vasquez' fault. She'd get used to him eventually.

 

Anyways, the shift was over, it was 5:30 am and she was supposed to have gone to sleep. It would probably be good for her, the sensible choice. Still, she found herself in a coffee shop, thinking of all the work she could do in the hours she was supposed to be sleeping. She would sleep, eventually. Just not now.

 

The place was small but well stocked and there were faded pictures of different places in the US framed on the walls: Philly, Wisconsin, California.... and a lot black wood chairs and tables, all poorly lit. But at the time in the morning (night, really) who wanted light in their face?

 

There were only three people in there, a client slumped over in a chair and two young servers, baristas or whatever they were called: a woman with fierce red hair, calmly reading a book, and a kid with goggles and out of focus blue eyes, who was trying not to fall asleep while standing there. Warren went to the lady whose name tag read Addy and asked what was good. The server averted her eyes from her book and smiled brightly.

 

“Oh, new client! Hi', I'm Addy, welcome to our little coffee shop. So, what is good, a lot of things, to be honest. If you want something to keep you up and running for a while, we have Doc's hangover special, but it's a bit too strong for some, lots of chemics; you've got my specialty coffees, the whackers, not as much of a jolt but full of flavour, and 10k here does wonderful milkshakes, if you prefer something sweeter, the milk and oreos one is to die for... and am I forgetting something?”

 

“Cake” Said the other boy laconically.

 

“He also does cakes. Like three different types of cheesecake and some pies, look at them. He has to come at 3:00 so that everything is freshly made, so don't mind it if he's a bit...zombiefied. But the cake really is good. So, what will it be?”

 

“Lemon cheesecake and esspresso whacker.”

 

“Coming right up!”

 

Warren loved both things. The whacker was tasty and as bitter as she liked, a mix of coffee, spices and milk, and the cheesecake was simply heavenly. Divine. Sweet but not too sweet, fresh, good ingredients, made with care.

 

She knew she would come back.

 

And come back she did.

 

After some time, she started going there more and more often, until the No more Z's became her regular place for coffee (and pie and sandwiches, because they had sandwiches at lunch, and occasionally pancakes too) and sometimes she just went there to hang out. It was a cozy place, the food and the drinnk were excellent and she'd grown to love both the staff and the other regulars like her.

 

She'd even met the owner, Murphy, who was a bit of a dick but had some decent lucid moments. Not very often, though. She'd been the ready to hate this guy from day for what Addy had told her of him and had only needed to exchange a few words to realise that he was indeed, a jerk. There was probably something good deep down, but it was almost unreachable under all those layers of being an ass.

 

Addy was the opposite – a lot of layers of great lady with some darkness in the centre. She was an art student who also taught some self-defence classes to younger girls and was a quick and effective barista, even in the rare occasions when they had a breakfast or lunch rush. She'd sworn off men after her long time boyfriend got killed in a freak accident, and was now skillful at flirting with either sex. But that was not a priority for her, never had been. She knew how to handle troublesome client, she knew how to make good coffee and she was a very interesting partner for conversations. She was a woman Warren respected.

 

The other bartender was 10k, the youngest member of their little gang. Had a troubled childhood, his mother disappeared when he was still a child and his father killed himself when he got diagnosed with cancer so that his son wouldn't see him become a shell of who he used to be. So he had lived on his own for a couple of years, not wanting to go to foster places, carefully avoiding authorities and forging documents. He had soft eyes and angelic features, but extraordinarily proficient in everything he did, specially for somebody as young as him. He was a target shooter who had once even made to the olympics, and he was also taking some neurobiology and pre med classes at a community college, trying to fight back what had taken his dad away from him.

 

Sun Mei was one of 10k's teachers at college, and she was also a regular. A chinese virologist who had come to the US to work in an ambitious vaccination project with the american Dr. Merch, she ended up staying in the US, even after that collaboration fell through. She was harder to read than the others but it was clear that she was a very inelligent woman and knew how to put people in their place. Warren liked having her around, someone level-headed, stern but deep and determined. The type of personality she enjoyed to have around.

 

But not all was seriousness, there were also smiles in the coffee place. Mostly provided by Doc, an old shady “Doctor” who had a bit of pill problem but a great, sunny attitude towards life. He'd more or less adopted 10k after the boy had saved from some assailants that wanted his pills. There was nothing legal signed, but to all effects and purposes, he was his dad. Doc always seemed to be cheerful, always up to whatever adventures the world threw at him. He always knew how to make everybody smile, and was full of unlikely but probably true stories. Not from his younger years, either. His daily life was apocalyptic enough.

 

There were also other people who came less often but became friends with them, too: Serena, a fling of Murphy's with a very strong a loud voice; Doc's buddies Sketchy and Sneezy, who were even shadier than him and even Warren's own partner, Vasquez went there occasionally. That place became Warren's safe place, a bit of a second home.

 

Until the moment it all became undone.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Hope you liked! You know you want to leave some feedback ;)


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